Lots of new interviews, California blackouts, “Economics, Energy, and Bitcoin”

In this issue:

  • Lots of new interviews: Kirk, Prager, and more
  • California blackouts
  • Economics, Energy, and Bitcoin — this week’s Power Hour

Lots of new interviews

From now until the election I’m planning on doing a lot of media to make the case for energy freedom and spread the word about EnergyTalkingPoints.com.

In the last week I’ve done interviews on:

I’d highly recommend the Charlie Kirk show in particular as he does a good job of asking me “Devil’s Advocate” questions. Feel free to recommend me to any shows you think I’d be a good fit for.

California blackouts

I’ve been tweeting recently about the blackouts in California, where I live. I believe we need to use this terrible development to make the case against pro-unreliables policies. Check out EnergyTalkingPoints.com, especially the messaging on the Joe Biden Energy Plan and the Wind Production Tax Credit, for lots of useful facts. Here are my latest Tweets. 

I have been in TX instead of my home state of CA during the first several days of the CA blackouts. It’s 105 where I am but I’m totally comfortable thanks to reliable electricity. Without reliable electricity, many Californians at much lower temps are at risk. Unreliables kill. 

Policies mandating unreliable solar and wind electricity are making our electricity grid more unreliable every year. If we do not make reliability a priority we will become a third-world grid with frequent blackouts. Everyone needs to learn from CA’s mistakes–especially CA. 

We face the prospect of frequent “green blackouts” thanks to a cocktail of 3 bad policies: 1) mandating unreliables (solar and wind), 2) prematurely shutting down ultra-reliable coal and nuclear plants while 3) stopping the construction of natural gas infrastructure. 

What is Joe Biden’s answer to the CA blackouts? His “plan” would make them nationwide and frequent via 1) more mandating unreliable solar and wind, 2) more shutdowns of ultra-reliable coal and nuclear plants, and 3) more obstacles to urgently-needed natural gas infrastructure. 

Economics, Energy, and Bitcoin

On this week’s Power Hour I interview economist Dr. Saifedean Ammous about economics and energy. Dr. Ammous, in part due to his influence by The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, is working on a new economics textbook that makes energy a central focus in analyzing the causes of prosperity. Dr. Ammous is best known for his popular book The Bitcoin Standard, a fascinating look at the economics of Bitcoin. We discussed a wide range of topics, including: 

  • How Ammous got interested in energy economics.
  • What Ammous learned studying the economics of biofuels.
  • Why it’s crucial to think of time as the most important resource.
  • How energy relates to time.
  • How economists tend to undervalue energy–and what Ammous is doing to address this.

Additionally we ended up discussing several foundational issues in economics, such as the nature of money, economic calculation, the nature of value, and opportunity cost. I hope you enjoy the wide-ranging discussion. 

As a bonus, on this episode I gave my first ever public explanation of “the private jet problem,” a central idea in The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels 2.0. 

Regarding the influence of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, Dr. Ammous says that  “It was only after reading your book that I came to really articulate” the full importance of energy. 

And:

You unapologetically just laid out all the things we need fossil fuels for…[with] the perspective of: well, what happens if you don’t have that stuff? What are the alternatives? Just how expensive is life? How dangerous would life be? [It] was really, really amazing. So thank you again for your book. 

You can watch on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts. 

Learn more about Dr. Ammous’s work, including his online classes, at Saifedean.com.   

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. 

EnergyTalkingPoints.com continues to gain steam. Please keep sharing it, especially with any candidates you know. I also continue to spend about 4 hours a day editing The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels 2.0. If you listen to the Charlie Kirk interview or this week’s Power Hour you’ll hear some of the new content. Thanks to the Accelerators who help support these projects. 

To Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Energy,

Alex